Lured from Hungary with a false promise of work, Janos Acs was held captive in a Hamilton basement. When he escaped he felt alone, leading to his suicide

Human trafficking survivor Timea Nagy, seen in a 2011 file photo, was lured to Toronto in 1998 from Budapest to work as a housekeeper but forced into exotic dancing. She later went on to found the human trafficking victim rescue group Walk With Me but says it is desperately underfunded.

By:Nicole O’ReillyHamilton Spectator, Published on Wed Jul 23 2014

In the early evening hours of June 10, Janos Acs walked onto train tracks in central Hamilton and lay down to die.

The 60-year-old’s suicide, near Emerald St. N., ended a troubled life that authorities thought they had saved.

Acs was among more than 20 people the RCMP rescued in 2009 from human traffickers who lured them from their native Hungary on the false promise of work. The now infamous Domotor-Kolompar criminal organization was dismantled in 2010 and stands as the largest human trafficking case in Canadian history. Twenty-three members of the extended family were convicted of various charges between 2012 and 2013.

But for Acs, the help came too late. Despite the successful prosecution of his abusers and the safe haven he and other victims were given, Acs lived out his remaining days in Canada moving in and out of shelters, struggling to find work and drinking heavily.

“I feel very much betrayed and I’m pretty frustrated,” he said in an interview in 2010, while living in a shelter. “I’m kind of all alone and I have no friends to discuss the situation,” he said.

He said he’d grown up in a small village and had never been outside Hungary.

He was approached by a member of the organization and offered a construction job in Canada. Ignoring warnings from family, Acs agreed. He immediately realized his mistake.

“When I came over here, the situation became a servant and master thing,” he said.

Acs spent seven months living in the basement of his captor’s Mohawk Rd. E. home. Along with working without pay, he was coached to apply for social assistance and told to claim that he was mentally handicapped.

On two occasions he escaped from the home, once approaching a police officer on the street. The officers didn’t understand what he was saying, so he went back.

When RCMP showed up in late 2009 and offered him an escape, he agreed to leave. But life in a men’s shelter was not what he thought it was going to be. He had hoped to bring his then 30-year-old son to Canada, but that never happened.

“I appreciate that people are helping me here, but I just can’t get used to this. I don’t regret that I came to Canada but I didn’t figure it was going to be like this.”

Hamilton police spokesperson Constable Debbie McGreal-Dinning confirmed police were called to the “sudden death” on June 10, in the area of Emerald St. N. and Birge St. The death was deemed non-criminal, but McGreal-Dinning said she could not comment further.

Fellow human trafficking victim Tamas Miko didn’t know Acs well — they were housed in different homes — but said news of his death is shocking.

Miko’s family was rescued from Hungary after being threatened over his agreement to testify in court. They live every day in the shadow of the criminal organization.

“I can’t just move on,” he said, adding that there is “so much hatred inside of me.”

Miko has gone back to school to get his high school equivalency. For now, his family lives together, unable to find work, collecting Ontario Works. It’s not the life he imagined for himself when he chose to come to Canada.

Miko said he hopes to one day work to “save people” in the same way human trafficking survivor Timea Nagy does.

During the Walk With Me’s early days, Nagy worked out of her car and fielded calls on her cellphone at all hours. She helped the victims find shelter and often acted as a translator.

Nagy met the human trafficking victims, including Acs, when they were first rescued and continued to support them throughout the court cases.

In recent years, Walk With Me bought a safe house that can house up to five victims. However, as awareness of human trafficking grows, so too has demand for the organization’s services.

Walk With Me gets about $200,000 in funding every year, but needs twice that amount to keep up with demand, Nagy said. Currently, Walk With Me does frontline victim care, but no longer has the staff to respond at any hour and is not currently accepting new clients.

Burlington MP Mike Wallace, who chairs the federal government’s justice committee, said the government is working to help human trafficking victims.

“Have we done enough? I would say most of us would say no, we could do more. But we are actually taking action to make that happen,” Wallace said.

Wallace pointed to changes to federal immigration law that allow human trafficking victims to be fast-tracked to permanent resident status, and to the victim bill of rights, which will be debated in the fall. He said this will make victims “part of judicial system to give them a voice.”

More on thestar.com

We value respectful and thoughtful discussion. Readers are encouraged to flag comments that fail to meet the standards outlined in our
Community Code of Conduct.
For further information, including our legal guidelines, please see our full website
Terms and Conditions.